What the Gauls are saying about *us* - just for a change

Despite all of their own fun and games, Le Monde has cast an eye over the local elections in these parts:

"It is the chronicle of a death foretold. If reality matches the opinion polls, Tony Blair's Labour Party faces its worst electoral showing in half a century".

And the Would Be Lord Protector?

"After all, the Chancellor and future Labour leader, Scottish by birth and in his heart, always stressed and gloried in his origins (looks like Le Monde isn't up to speed with that nonsense about him enjoying Gascoigne's England beating Scotland) . Scotland, for which he has been an MP for for over 24 years is his personal fiefdom, and in any case, it is a Labour bastion where he is the strong man. 'Losing' Scotland would be an undeniable political and symbolic defeat for him".

And these parts?:

"In the south of England, where the standard of living is higher, the population pays a greater level of taxes that elsewhere, but does not get its share of public expenditure, this being redistributed across the country because of a highly centralized tax system. The South forgets that it profited more than the North from economic growth". Naughty us.